Constitutional Provisions

a. The respect of his person, life, personal integrity, its dignity and his full material and moral development. ...

k. To freedom of association, assembly and manifestation.

Article 129 stipulates that the State Security Forces are responsible for public order and the normal functioning of public powers.

Treaty Adherence

Global Treaties

Adherence to Selected Human Rights Treaties

1966 Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

State Party

ICCPR Optional Protocol 1

State Party

1984 Convention against Torture (CAT)

State Party

Competence of CAT Committee to receive individual complaints

No

CAT Optional Protocol 1

Not party

Adherence to International Criminal Law Treaties

1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

Not party

Regional Treaties

Adherence to Regional Human Rights Treaties

1981 African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights

State Party

1998 Protocol to the African Charter on the African Court

Signatory

Article 34(6) declaration regarding individual petitions

N/A

Adherence to International Criminal Law Treaties at Regional Level

Malabo Protocol on Amendments to the African Court of Justice and Human Rights

Not party

National Legislation

Police Use of Force

There is a paramilitary police and a gendarmerie in Equatorial Guinea. There is reported to be national legislation governing police use of force a 2015 law on maintaining public order, which requires security forces to use non-violent means before resorting to force and that any use of firearms be necessary and proportionate. Under international law, police use of firearms is restricted to where it is necessary to confront an imminent threat of death or serious injury or a grave and proximate threat to life.

In July 2018, Human Rights Watch stated that there was "credible evidence that Guinea’s security forces used excessive lethal force and engaged in other unprofessional conduct during violent street protests in February and March 2018. No member of the police or gendarmes has been arrested or charged." In an interview with Human Rights Watch, General Ibrahima Baldé, the commander of the gendarmerie and head of the election security force, said that all security force members under his control are strictly forbidden from carrying or using firearms when responding to demonstrations and denied that any officers carry them. “If I saw a gendarme with a firearm, I would intervene immediately,” he said. A senior official at the Security and Civilian Protection Ministry, which oversees the police, said that police were only permitted to wear riot equipment when policing demonstrations or strikes and do not carry firearms. He said, however, that security forces did not have adequate anti-riot equipment and urged Guinea’s partners to provide funds to assist the police and gendarmes to obtain the necessary material.

Police Oversight

Article 126 of the Constitution determines that the functions of the Defender of the People (Defensor del Pueblo) are:

To verify and mediate any irregular conduct in the relations between the public or private administration and the citizens.

This could include allegations of excessive police use of force.

Caselaw

Global

Views and Concluding Observations of United Nations Treaty Bodies

In 2010, the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture concluded that torture was systematically used by the police, in particular at the central police stations in Bata and Malabo.

In 2014, in its submission for the Universal Periodic Review of Equatorial Guinea under the Human Rights Council, Amnesty International asserted that police and soldiers continue to enjoy almost total impunity for unlawful killings, including extrajudicial executions.

Regional

Equatorial Guinea has not ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, allowing the African Court to hear cases alleging a violation of the Charter by the state.